Mandating UTC everywhere and eliminating the concept of time zones altogether is all a political candidate needs to do in order to earn my vote in 2024.

Seriously, what is the point of time zones? The only explanation I’ve ever heard is “well if we didn’t have time zones, half the world would be expected to be awake when it’s dark out!” No. We could all just literally adjust the times of our business operations based around when daylight is usual for the different geographic regions as they have the sun shine on them. The physical “zones” of time zones could remain the same, and in those zones “noon” would just mean something other than “12:00.” “Noon” for one region could be 2300 while what is considered “noon” for another region could be 1800.

(And for my next rant: why the 24 hour clock is superior to the 12 hour clock… reason number 1? There’s 24 hours in a day…)

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago (7 children)

What you're proposing is literally time zones but without shifting the actual clock, you still end up with all the issues and you remove the link between the hour of day and the sun's position for people lol

Plus who gets to decide that everyone switches over and what is the new global time?

[–] CodeBlooded 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Yes, this is literally what I’m proposing.

You do not still end up with the same issues. Somebody booking a ticket for a hotel room to be available at 1300 from a different time zone than said hotel will not arrive at the hotel to learn that the check in time is different from their expectation.

Regarding “the link between the hour of the day and the sun’s position,” I’m asserting that we should recalibrate this expectation based on time zones, rather than changing the clock to some fictitious time based on “noon” always equaling “1200.”

who gets to decide that everyone switches over and what is the new global time?

“Global time” in this context is already decided to be UTC. And no one gets to decide on the switch. This is a dream that will never come to fruition. 😕

[–] netizen 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You're saying that in the U.S. you enter your office on Monday and exit on Tuesday?

[–] CodeBlooded -1 points 4 months ago

Yes. Many people already work shifts that have them do exactly that (show up to work on Monday, go home on Tuesday).

My first job had me work all sorts of shifts. Anything other than the day shift, I was showing up early or late evening one day, and leaving work early or late morning the next day.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Haha, let's inconvenience 99.9% of humans so some programmers have a slightly easier life. I've had my share of frustration with time zones, but this change is so enormous, that it's in no way appropriate.

[–] CodeBlooded 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I don’t think it’s actually realistic that this would ever change at this point in the game. I do think we could have adapted to all using UTC if we never started with time zones in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The things is that time zones are a natural part of the earth. Back when people told time by the position of the sun, people in different places would naturally observe a different time. Should everyone around the globe have somehow established contact and said, hey one day we're all going to be in constant contact, could you change your sundials to read the time where I am instead of where you are? At the end of the day, although time zones and daylight savings time have created some slight variations on this concept, noon/midday was defined by the concept of the sun being directly overhead. Since the origins of time telling are based on the sun, there is no first place where we didn't start with time zones. Unless we somehow advanced as a society to create computers and the Internet without having ever created a system of time.

[–] CodeBlooded 1 points 4 months ago

That’s fair. The replies here have opened my narrow thoughts that I’ve had on everyone solely using UTC.

In my defense, when discussing this with others in person, I’ve only ever been given garbage reasons to have time zones…

Now …can we all agree to hate Daylight Saving Time?

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